Thermal Conductivity of Normal Liquid 3He in Aerogel

We report thermal conductivity measurements for normal phase liquid ³He inside 98 and 95% aerogels at dilution refrigerator temperatures (5 to 50 mK). In our measurements we use cylindrical samples of aerogel which have been fabricated inside quartz tubes. Each tube is enclosed at one end by a small chamber to which a known heat input is applied at a measured temperature. The other end is in an open volume of helium which is heat sunk to the refrigerator. Vibrating wire thermometry is used to measure the helium temperatures. The thermal conductivity measurements show clearly the effects of quasiparticle-impurity scattering, from which values of the mean free path are derived. These are 92 nm for the 98% aerogel and 56 nm for the 95% sample.